Home at Last!

Nov. 29, 2011

Our last two weeks in Ukraine were like a whirlwind with NO time to record anything. Once we finally obtained the amended court decree, we were able to get the birth certificate, passport, id codes, medical and visa with only minimal difficulty over the following 2 weeks. I hope to go back and fill in the details soon, but for now I wanted to let you know we are FINALLY home!

 

We opted to stay three extra days in Ukraine to attend the amazing wedding of Sv. & Ir., our hosts for 6 weeks. It was beautiful and SO fun! Two days before the wedding, we had the weirdest Thanksgiving ever by eating dinner at Arizona Barbecue with a fellow displaced adopting American, Li., and two of our amazing Ukrainian friends, Sl. & Sa. After dinner, Sv. & Ir. met us for a fireworks celebration of our completed adoption.

On Monday, November 26^th, we arrived in the US to an amazing crowd of 35 friends with balloons, signs and SMILES! Jumping, screaming happy people!! Fortunately, J2 was also welcomed by three of his Ukrainian friends, two who have been adopted and one who is here in the area going to college. It was awesome!

Our first two days home have been great. W. took Tuesday off to spend with us and I followed J2 around with my camera recording all of his "firsts" here:) As a friend said, it's like having a new baby-except he can actually understand what he is seeing and will remember it! Our first two days were filled with wonder, perfect sunny weather, a new bike, scooter time, new brothers climbing trees together, all four kids on the trampoline making up funny games, helping Dad mow the lawn and fix bikes, family bike ride, picnic at the park, dinner with friends and Church last night.

SO good to be home, in our own beds, cozy & safe, drying fluffy clothes in my DRYER, driving my van, loading the dishwasher, and getting ice and clean water from the door of the fridge!:) May we never take these American luxuries for granted again!

More info to come……J

We got it!!!!

We GOT IT!!!!!  We had the amended decree by 10:30 am.  Ni. took J2 in to the judge with her and walked out with it in less than 5 minutes!  She said he was her secret weapon!  BUT THEN, it wasn't official until the Head of the Court stamped it.  So we waited and waited and waited.  Two hours later, at 12:30, the guy rolled in.  In those two hours, we saw well over 30 people try his locked door!   All waiting for him!  These people have no sense of urgency!   FORTUNATELY,  Ni. was the first to spot him when he rolled in and chased him quickly to his office, to be the first in line.  Yay!  We got our stamp and were on our way again to the Birth certificate office (by way of Puzata Hata for lunch:).  We arrived around 2 and they told us the document had to be signed by the head of the department, who of course wasn't there.  They told us she would be back in 40 minutes...so we waited.  Thankfully we had plenty of electronics to keep busy:)  Finally, at 3:21, the lady rolled in.  After another 30 min or so, we went back to sign a document and a register book.  Then we waited more.  Finally, at 4:30, we HAD IT!!!!!   The elusive BIRTH CERTIFICATE!!  It was really neat to see our names in Cyrillic!  Лінч says Lynch!:)   Ni. did a dance as she came down the hall with it!!  We raced off to the notary and made it by 5.  Notaries here take FAR longer than in the US.  They read the entire document, type up their own, make several copies, make copies of my passport., etc. Etc.  She had never done this without both parents and using POA, so was puzzled by that and had a LOT of questions.  But FINALLY 45 min later, at 5:45, we had the notarization for the birth certificate!!!

Since it was too late to accomplish anything else, we called it a day and went to spend the evening with the B. Family, also here adopting, for BOGO Dominoes pizzas!  Mmmm! 

Tomorrow we go for the id code and passport.    We have heard from two other families that obtaining the id code was challenging…so it could be another long day or days….  we’ll see what’s in store for us nextJ .

More Waiting, Moving and a Near Death Experience

Happy Tuesday!

Again, sincere apologies for neglecting this for so long.  It has been a rather uneventful week..waiting for the next step.  I hope this gets everyone up to speed and doesn't bore you too much:)   It is sprinkled with some interesting info and a near death experience, so read on....:)  See Saturday's entry if you don't have time to read it all and want to get to the terror!  I only have time to post a few pictures today, but will try to post more tomorrow or the next day!

Monday, November 5, 2012

The first Monday without rain in a MONTH!  YAY!

We had to get out of house for the cleaning lady again.  We spent our day waiting for a phone call.   Our white phone died so I attempting to get a message to Ni. on our little black phone.  

We visited Coffee House for the last time.   Now that our friend Ox., is no longer at Coffee House, it is not the same.   We spent about 2 hours there, then went to Mosaic Park.  Finally heard from Ni. around 2, who said she was going over to see the Judge to get our amended decree and then was planning to go to the birth certificate office on Tuesday at 9 because they were closed for a Holiday on Monday!    Again!

We enjoyed Mosaic Park and most of all the weather!  It was chilly, but not as cold.  It was pleasant and not windy.  It was grey, but NOT RAINING!!  It was the FIRST non- rainy Monday in a MONTH!  YAY!   The playground was very nice and as the name, Mosaic, says, the rides were decorated with beautiful mosaics!   The kids enjoyed the monkey bars, swings, see saw, and spinner.  Although so many things here in Ukraine are dilapidated, the playgrounds we’ve seen are quite nice!   After playing a while, we explored the trail!  It was so much fun!  Along the trail we discovered several interesting benches and of course had to pose on them! 

One of the benches gave J.V. an idea.  He said, “Oh, one moment! “ and he began arranging the kids in a particular order.  After he finished, he exclaimed, “Narnia!”  He had arranged the kids like the Kings and Queens of Narnia!  This was particularly amazing because about 6 years ago, our Original Three were three of the Narnia kids for Fall Festival.  When they were asked, “Where is your other brother?” they replied, “we’re still looking for him!”  Here in Kiev we have watched several movies, including Narnia, but  JV had no way to understand the significance of the movie to us when he arranged them like he did, so it was really remarkable to me.   After that photo, we decided that this park reminded us quite a bit of Narnia with its odd forest which was tucked away right behind the big city!  We half expected for Mr. Tumnus to walk out to greet us!  Or a talking beaver!  We explored the Narnian forest and took several more pictures.  J1 & J2 and An. collected leaves, caterpillars and even slugs and we took many pictures among the beautiful yellow leaved trees.  Fortunately, we didn’t run into the White Witch…yet.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

We were prepared to go with Ni. Tuesday morning to the birth certificate office, then for his id number and then his passport.  But when I hadn’t heard anything by 11:30, I texted her and she called to say, I’ll be there in 10 minutes.  What I have to tell you, I don’t want to tell you over the phone.”  Wow, that was so sickening, terrifying, heart wrenching.  I immediately put a prayer request on facebook, got dressed, read Psalm 23 then went downstairs to meet Ni.  It felt very shady, like so many operations here!  I’m not used to the back alley clandestine meetings!  FORTUNATELY, after explaining the details of her visit to court on Monday and being told to come back Tuesday, then waiting and waiting again, Ni. told me that although she submitted the request for the amended decree on Nov 1^st, and they told her three days, the judge didn’t receive it from her staff until Monday, Nov. 5^th, and it was going to take her 5 (working??) days….so “come back on the 13^th…that’s my final answer.”  When Ni. protested, the less than compassionate judge said, “it usually takes me two weeks, so be happy with 5 days. “  So Ni. let me know she had contacted others, and had no idea how we could make this happen sooner.   One influential person had recommended bringing the kids before the judge the following day to see if she would have mercy on us and move up the date.   I started to think that my Kings and Queens of Narnia needed to suit up and go challenge the White Witch. Ultimately, after pondering on it all day, Ni. decided that it was too risky to go to the judge for fear that she may be so angry we questioned her decision that she’d add an extra week!  So we decided to wait….another week…until we could even try to start on the next part of his process.  Deep breath. 

During the day, Sv. texted me and let me know that an anonymous donor from the American Embassy was offering to buy 4 pizzas for us for dinner!  Wow!  We found out that this family is also an adoptive family who wanted to “pay it forward”.  They also have 3 bio kids and one adopted from South America.  We chose 4 unique pizzas and enjoyed them with Sv. and Ir.  During dinner, Sv. informed us that they also wanted to donate two weeks in an apartment or however long it takes for us to finish this process.   WOW!  Quite honestly, although I had wanted to get out of Sv.’s way…the thought of staying in a Ukrainian apartment as the only adult frightened me.   But fast forward to today and we are very happy here and EXTREMELY grateful for the generosity of this anonymous family.  I would really love to meet them!

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

It was a rather dark day for me.  The fear of moving and the extra week to wait really weighed on me.   The U.S. election results only added to my gloom.  We just did school work and packed all day, only leaving the house for a trip to the bank and grocery. 

On this night, Sl. & Ir. came over.  Ir. made a delicious stew with veal, potatoes, carrots, onions.  We all spent some nice time together hearing more of Sv.’s interesting life stories.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

We packed more and did more school work, again only leaving the house to go to the grocery.  Having to carry all of the groceries, we pretty much have to grocery shop every other day, if not more often! 

Sv. & Ir. went to her Dad’s bday party.  Sa. & Sl. came over for Shepherd’s Pie. 

Friday, November 9, 2012

I thought we’d be flying home this day and the Ladies in our life over here (Ir., Sa. & Sl.) all went to the Ladies Retreat for the weekend.   It was another rather sad and lonely day for me.  Miss my husband, my parents, my friends, my home, my van, my country, smiling people.    Can you see why I haven’t updated this blog in a while?  Who wants to hear all of that boring and downcast news??:)  I’m finally doing better so decided it was time to catch this up!

This was another day of school work and a trip to the bank and grocery.   (Why the bank so often?  We owe our facilitator more money than we can get in one trip to the atm…so have to keep going back over and over and over and over. )  We had our Ukrainian favorite meal, Pelmeni, for dinner.   Sv. was gone until about 9:30 pm since he leads Youth group on Fridays.  Ab. opted out of youth group this week since all the “girls” were gone. 

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Moving day.  What a chore.  Thankfully Sv. helped us by taking two trips to drive us over and help us get our stuff to the apartment.    The kids and I made him a thank you card and signed a dollar bill for him.  He had mentioned that he wanted one early in our stay, and as we packed up I found a stray dollar bill on my night stand which reminded me to leave one for him.  We are SOOOOO grateful to him for putting up with us for as long as he did.   We so appreciate our time in the Ritz of apartments here in Kiev! 

Our new apartment is a 2 bedroom apartment with two little porches.  We no longer have a clothes dryer, a dishwasher, a coffee maker, or a toaster …but it is a pretty nice place by Ukrainian apartment standards.  Fortunately, there is a scary Babushka who guards the front door of the building, and a very nice playground right out front!   

The donor family even gave us money to fill the refrigerator after our move!  We are only 3 blocks from a great store here- a bit like a Walmart, so we walked up the road to restock our new place.   Our walk back home in the dark was challenging with all of the goods we needed to start over here, but we made it. 

After we unloaded, we went on a MUCH needed outing with fellow adoptive family, the B. Family, who are also adopting from F.H.   Their new son was our new son’s roommate!  We met them at the amazing and incredible Dreamtown Mall where most of the kids enjoyed another round of Ice Skating.  (An. opted out since her last time was not so enjoyable.)  Fortunately this time we weren’t surrounded by horrifying teenage Halloween costumes!   Also fortunately, the Mall wasn’t as crowded so Na., Li. and I were able to secure a table on the sidelines of the skating rink and order some tea while we watched the kids skate.   It was such a wonderful and therapeutic evening sharing laughter and adoption adventure woes.  I am SO thankful to God that they are here, too.   Our Ukrainian kids REALLY enjoyed seeing one another and all of the kids had a great time. 

After our wonderful evening, the mall closed and we had to go our separate ways.  We boarded the blue line metro trains and rode along together until the B. family had to get off.  We found our station and proceeded to walk home in the dark.  There are a lot of people out on the streets in the evening, and we have found this city to be much safer than we anticipated.   We neared the intersection closest to our apartment and the “big kids” who were leading, found the pedestrian signal was not working.  Well, we had to cross the street to get home, so Ab. waited until the cars had a red light, watched them stop and then proceeded into the street with J1.   J2 and An. and I were following close behind and as we proceeded into the intersection “something” caused me to look toward the right.  That is when I noticed a pair of headlights FLYING toward the intersection.  It did NOT look like he had any intentions of stopping, so I YELLED at my big kids to STOP!!!  Ab. heard me, but J1 did not..and kept plodding along.  It was definitely the most terrifying moment of my life.  Finally J1 stopped…but there we all were in the middle of a 4 lane road..…it nearly seemed to be in slow motion as the car came careening into the intersection, spotted us frozen, slammed on his brakes, skidded, screetched, slid, swerved and narrowly made it around us.  We stood frozen for another moment and looked at the other cars to see if they also had started to move.  Fortunately, they were all still sitting there- that crazy lunatic had run a red light, at HIGH speed!  Once we realized the other cars were stationary, I yelled, “RUN!!!”  and my kids and I RAN to the other side.  Oh, my goodness.  Words cannot express my feelings.   We huddled together and I just sobbed, “Thank You Jesus, Thank You Jesus!!!”  It still makes me teary to remember it.   I had just read Psalm 34:7 the day before:

“The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him,

And delivers them.”

Wow, am I ever thankful for that!  I have heard stories of people who were up against people that the Lord was protecting seeing intimidating angels…wonder what that crazy drunk driver saw?  I hope he saw a blinding, shiny angel with a sword and it changes his life forever!:) 

Sunday,  November 11, 2012

We got up and got ready for Church.  I woke up with a migraine but was determined to persevere and make it to Church.  The first morning in a new place is always the hardest as it is when we have to relocate every item we need to get ready to go!  Breakfast items, coffee, cups, clothes, toiletries, towels, etc, etc.   We were late for Church but we made it and were so glad we did.  Since the Ladies of the Church (except me and a few othersJ) were out of town for the Retreat, the Pastor called it, “Man Church”.  He handed out mustaches for everyone, so we had to get a mustache picture with Sv.!:

The Pastor’s message was about conquering fears (how appropriate for me!) and stepping out in faith as God leads you.  This also reminded me of this big adventure we are a part of!   In spite of the difficulty, I honestly would recommend this to everyone who feels called by God to adopt.  The easy road is never the most interesting.  Watching God work has been beyond description.  The things we have seen and heard and learned and felt…all are irreplaceable learning experiences for me and for the kids.  As we gathered together on our little porch last night to hang clothes out on the clothes line…the kids had a GREAT time!  I think they thought it was a bit like a Little House on the Prairie episode.  All of this “roughing it” doesn’t seem to bother them!   In addition to the awesome message at Church, it is always a delight to be able to go to Church here and see fellow smiling Americans.  :D

After Church Sv. went to a lunch meeting with a friend and the kids and I walked to McDonalds for some much needed comfort food.  Mmmm… filet of fish and fries never tasted so good, except the last time I had them in Ukraine.     If you can ignore the scowling people everywhere, McDonalds is pretty much the same hereJ. 

After our comforting lunch at Mc Donald’s, we headed back to Megamarket for some more much needed items.  We only have two towels in this new apartment.  Since the shower leaks ALL OVER the entire bathroom floor every time we use it, we had to use the only two towels to soak up water!  It is not overspray, as I initially falsely accused my poor boys.  The floor of the shower just doesn’t drain properly, so water pools and seeps out all over the floor during the following hour after every shower)  On our return trip to Megamarket, it was so nice to know our way around the store this time and find things much more easily and quickly.  We then made our way back home by way of the awesome playground out front.  The three youngest had a wonderful time playing, while Ab. and I chatted on a nearby bench.   Again, the playgrounds here are very nice.  This one is just for our apartment building and the one next door and it has several (maybe 8) nice pieces of equipment for the kids as well as SEVEN benches for parents!  It is FAR superior to most playgrounds we frequent in FL!  J.V. may get to America and say, ‘What’s up with this lame-o playground??  I thought this was the land of promiseJ! ‘  Good thing we have DisneyJ.

After playing a little while, the sun sets promptly at 4:30.  By 5 it is PITCH DARK here!  I can’t remember for certain, but it doesn’t seem like it is SO dark so early back home.    Due to the early darkness…the playgrounds are illuminated by several surrounding lights.  Every time we’ve looked there are several parents with their little tiny children playing in the pitch dark!  (OK, mine are always the biggest kids, but they need to play too! And I make sure they are considerate of the littlest of littles, too).    We guess these families playing in the dark are working parents who just got their kids from daycare and it is the only time they have to get outside and play.

After we returned home, we watched a dvd, (Monumental) and went to bed. 

Monday, November 12, 2012

This was the first Monday we didn’t have to leave for the cleaning lady! We stayed home all day, just because we could!!  We slept in, did school work, and even got to Skype with Gran and G.P.   It was awesome!!!     They had never tried Skype before, so it was a lot of fun.   Once the kids finished all of their school work, we suited up in our coats, hats, scarves and gloves and hit the playground again, in the dark.  J   We fed the wild kitties some bizarre corn mush stuff that we tried to cook the other night.  We thought it was couscous…but NOOO…it is some strange coarsely ground corn- a bit like grits, only much, much, much nastier.  We have been unable to bring water to a boil on this stove (it is more like a hot plate) so everything we have tried to cook has failed.    Water will FINALLY boil after about an hour, but when you add food it stops.  The closest thing to palatable we’ve had was the pasta we had for lunch.  Ab. got the pot to boil using the water from the tea pot, then let the noodles sit in the hot water for a while.  It didn’t work out so well with the pelmeni tonight, which all fell apart into mush and globs of meat.    Good thing the frying pan works ok and we supplemented with scrambled eggs.  Even the kiwi s we bought yesterday were horrible, overripe and FERMENTED!  Ewwww!  Pretty much every meal we’ve had here in this apartment has been horrible.  Even the sour cream we just bought was liquefied!  It smelled and tasted OK…so we ate it sparingly, and hope tomorrow doesn’t hold nasty gastrointestinal surprises for us!   Fortunately we are planning to get Dominoes pizza with the B. Family for dinner tomorrow night since Tuesday is their BOGO night! 

Tomorrow is the 13th!  It is the big day that the judge told Ni. to come back for our amended decree!   Hopefully she will keep her word.  Ni. told us to be ready by 9, so I need to wrap this up.   HOPEFULLY we’ll make some progress toward getting the elusive birth certificate!!!!   Until next time….which I will try to ensure isn’t another week!:) 

Coffee House!

 More Coffee House!

Sad, sad piano which sits on the street we used to travel frequently.  Ab.'s piano teacher is cringing now!

 My kiddos in one of my favorite trees..a weeping willow.

Sitting on an unusual bench....we think it is supposed to look like a blanket!

My Kings and Queens of Narnia! 

 Fortunately we found and rescued their missing brother and he wasn't being held by the White Witch (the "system" here) due to any fault of his own! 

More pix to come.....

Bad News, Freezing Rain and Better Days Ahead

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Up and ready by 10:30 to meet Nina.  At 11:15, I texted “ready when you are” and she let me know she was at the court house waiting.  She had decided to go without us since she didn’t need us for that part of the venture.  I made sure we had enough time to run to Billa and the bank and she said, “go”, so we did.  The bank adventure was our only attempt to use the atm since our failed attempt at the airport.  Fortunately, it WORKED, we were able to get money and so far it appears that our account is safe from skimmers. 

We went to Billa for some essentials then went back home to wait for the phone to ring.  The kids were able to get in most of their school work and then relax a bit.  Unfortunately, around 4, Nina let me know that the court will not just print a new decree to satisfy the Birth certificate office.  Since the decree has already been sent out to several regional offices, the prosecutor said there needs to be an “amendment” which will take 3 days.   Sadly, that pushed us to Monday.   The day was quite depressing and lonely with dreary grey drizzly skies and single parenting taking its toll on me.  We were overjoyed when Sa. showed up for dinner, bringing her smiles and laughter with her.  You simply can’t help but smile with Sa. and Sl. around!  We had sausages, rice and a veggie plate.....not quite as odd as our “pantry surprise” with the omelette, tomato and 15 meatballs!:) 

Friday, Nov. 2, 2012 

On Friday morning we slept in and then got ready to meet Sa. by noon for a trip to the Water Museum!  When Sa. contacted us on her way over she said, “Get your umbrellas and meet me at the bus stop.”  We brought one, but I wish we would have brought more umbrellas with us!  The weather was MISERABLE..freezing rain.  But we just had to go with Sa. to see this place we’d heard great things about and to get out of the house!  We donned our ponchos on the front steps (which J2 thought was very funny that they were called ponchos after we had told him the night before the name of Sv.’s wool poncho.   I occasionally call him “Little Man.” So he proudly took a stance with hands on both hips and said, “I Leetle Man...in a poncho.”  SOO funny! )  Anyway, after suiting up in our ponchos (which by the way Ukrainians DO NOT wear- so we get looks like, “what are those stupid people doing in trash bags??”) we made our way to the bus stop.  Freezing rain....my MOST hated weather phenomenon.  I’d rather have a foot of snow than freezing rain.  Beyond miserable.  But we pressed onward!  We CRAMMED onto the bus when it arrived.  And I mean crammed.  It was the most crowded bus we have been on since we got here!  As we made our way onto the bus, the scary Babushka who is in charge of taking tickets assaulted J1 with words as he attempted to make his way into the aisle jammed with people in order to get all of us ON the bus!  Sa. translated and said, “she said, ‘don’t make a traffic jam’.  I must add here, that the barrage of Russian or Ukrainian or whatever they chose at the moment (usually a combo I think) is quite harsh and scary sounding.  Look in the mirror, scowl as deeply as possible, and then blast out non-sensical angry words “VASCHAZHENDEzHOONEVADOOZHENESCHEZANA!!!!!!!”  and you’ll get a feel for what I am trying to describe.  Wow, whatever it was, it was frightening!  These little Babushkas mean business!

The bus was so crowded we could barely raise our arms to hold on.  My head was resting on Sa.’s arm and kids were pressed hard into me on all sides.  We could barely contain our laughter...but we held back for fear of another verbal assault!  When we squeezed out of the bus, it was a bit like being born!  Ha!  Only we didn’t cry when we hit the sidewalk- we breathed a HUGE sigh of relief!  Once we made it to Independence Square, we made our way across and up an ENORMOUS flight of stairs.  I counted another smaller set later and we climbed 133 stairs!  So that first flight, in the freezing rain, was AT LEAST 150 steps up, up, up, up, up....in the wind, in the rain, in the cold.  We finally arrived at a plateau and Sa. asked a passer-by how to get to the water museum.  Sadly, the lady motioned back DOWN the 150 steps.  So down we went.  Our coat hoods were pulled so tightly around our faces we could barely see, so we felt very thankful none of us tripped and rolled like a swirling bag of trash down the hill!  (made myself laugh with that mental image...oh, don’t forget freezing water flying off of the swirling bag of trash rolling down the hill!)

We made it safely back down to Kreshatyk and went a few more blocks up the road to the correct ENORMOUS flight of stairs and commenced climbing again.  This was the 133 step flight of stairs, which was followed by a steep ramp for another several yards.....until....at last.....we arrived.  Winded, cold, wet, but THERE!  We huddled under a shelter, but the freezing rain was blowing in at us.  We had worked MUCH too hard to get there to leave at that point, so we waited in line behind a school group.  When the mysterious door finally opened, they ushered in the school group then closed the door in our faces!  Oh, my goodness.  The kids and Sa. and I were at least able to huddle even closer to the door in a warmer drier spot in the 3 foot space around the door facing.  We shared some tasty Ukrainian snacks we have discovered, “Bacon flavored crackers”!  We decided Uncle Br. Would LOVE these crackers!  We also had cheese flavored crackers, which were quite tasty, too.  Thankfully our tasty treats distracted us from the continued wait in the freezing rain long enough to see the door open just as we finished!  They welcomed us inside, with typical Ukrainian indifference, and we paid our admission.  I was thankful for Sa.’s help in requesting the tickets.  All total, this adventure only cost ~$13 for all 6 of us (or about $2 per person!)  It was a very impressive little museum, I must say!  I doubt I would travel back out in the freezing rain for it, but it was really nice.  The kids were taught about the water cycle, water conservation, the source of the local river, the Dnipro and so much more (with our own resident Sa. to interpret for us!:)    They got to see a bathroom with the water running over in all of the appliances and learn about conserving water.  This bathroom was one of the nicest ones I have seen in Kyiv...too bad it was in a museum!  The special effects of the overflowing water everywhere were very good.  They even had an enormous toilet the kids could pose on!:)  After the toilet, they had a bubble station, where the guy had a kiddie pool full of bubble juice and a hula hoop size wand.  We stood on a little block of wood in the "pool" and he pulled a LIFESIZE bubble up over us!  After the bubbles, there was a HUGE fish tank full of giant Koi where we laid our hands on the water and were instructed to make a wish if a fish swims by your hand;)  I should have wished to go home:)   It was pretty amazing I must say! 

After the water museum, Sa. had to go to a meeting with a school associate.  We killed time in the underground mall because it was still COOOOOLD and wet and raining!  Brrrrrrr!  In spite of ponchos AND an umbrella, our shoes, socks and gloves were SOAKED by this time, and our hands and feet were FREEZING!  BRRRRR!  

We ate a late lunch at a place where we had eaten Veriniky with Weej before he left.   After our late lunch, we came out and were entertained by three older ladies with an accordion and tamborine singing beautifully- even with some harmony!  We stood and videotaped and took pictures and clapped for them.  Two of the ladies were even smiling while they sang!  I'm sure they enjoyed our smiling faces watching them, too, and we gave them some money, as well.  We bought a few tiny souveniers while in the tunnel and were wishing for a place with dry socks and gloves for sale, but found only flowers, trinkets and the like! 

At 5 we met Sa. at the Maidan McDonalds so she could ride the metro with Ab. to Youth group, and the other three kids and I journeyed on bus 18 to Billa.  We bought some more meat because Je., Sv., Ir., Ka., Sa. were joining us for dinner after Youth group. 

Around 8:30, I had dinner staged and the table set when Ir. came home and let me know she had just ordered 4 pizzas at Sv.’s request!  Actually pizza sounded just as good as the tacos, so I gladly put the meat away for our next meal! 

We enjoyed pizza and conversation with our new friends and called it a night.

Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012

We slept until 11, then got up slowly and enjoyed a breakfast of toast and Nutella alongside cheese slices and banana halves.  Sv. as already long gone on his trip to the commissary.   After breakfast we enjoyed some time with our Bibles, picking out verses which spoke to us and reminded us that God will help us!  It was an amazing time together of seeking out scripture then sharing our verses with one another in English and Ukrainian! 

Our favorites were:

“The Lord is on my side, I will not fear.”  Psalm 118:6

“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10

I love: “For I will contend with him who contends with you; And I will save your children.”  Isaiah 49:25b

Among many others,

J1 found: “The Lord will hear when I call to Him.”  Psalm 4:3b

J2 found: “I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies.”  Psalm 18:3

An. liked Psalm 107:1-16.  Verse 6 is especially fitting, “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of all of their distresses.” 

It was an amazing time in God’s word.  It was so wonderful to watch my kids enjoy what God had to say about His provision and protection for us!  Several times they borrowed my Bible highlighter to highlight verses they enjoyed which the others had found.  It was a special moment for me as a Mom to see them seeking God and enjoying His word.  Nothing greater in my opinion than to see these kids seek God; this is FAR above any academic or athletic achievements, in my opinion. 

Abigail slept very late on Saturday as she has been recovering from a bad cold.  After she woke up, we all ate noodle soup for a late lunch, then got dressed to go out and enjoy  the BEAUTIFUL SUN!  We hadn’t seen the sun in SO long...I wish we would have gone out earlier!  We finally went to the little playground the kids can see from the family room window.  Even Ab. played on the teeter totter and they also enjoyed the swing and slide.  The slide should have been called a “Stick” because there is no way a child could slide on it, only stick to it and scoot down by force!  Ha! 

After trying out the teeny tiny playground, we walked toward the Church that we can see from the window.  We followed the map, but it led us astray.  We did end up closer to the Church, but it was blocked by an apartment building.      

OK, time for bed now....to be continued.  I just learned that I can type in my sleep! I just typed that the Church was in St. Louis!!! St. Louis??? Why St. Louis?? HA!...I woke myself up and decided it was far beyond time to go to bed!

Until next time! 

OK, much more rested now.  Anyway, after getting a few pictures of the Church just before the sun set, we went to the ATM, then back to the house to make tacos!  Sv. & Ir. & Ka. joined us for dinner and then the fun began.  Sv. Handed J1 a big, giant balloon the color of a gum eraser and said, “go have a seat, and blow this up.”  It was 1 meter in diameter- the biggest balloon I have ever seen!  Inside it Sv. had placed two flashing neon red and blue lights and one purple light.  Once the balloon was inflated, the colored lights could be spun around frantically making a zzZZZZZzzzzZZZZ sound as they went!  Then, to make it even more fun, Sv. said he wanted to “test drive” the giant balloon in St. Sophia Square!  We piled in his car with the big flashing balloon and made our way downtown.  Sv. popped the giant balloon up into the air like a volleyball and when it caught the wind, the kids gleefully went chasing and laughing to pop it back to him!  With the windflow, popping it back against the breeze was impossible, so the kids took turns running it back to him to throw again.  It was like a game of fetch for kidsJ.  We had SO much fun.   We NEED some giant balloons to take back home with us!  It was too dark for the pictures to be much good, but of course I got a lot of video!:) 

Side note:  I’m not sure when this started, but a log of our adventures here would not be complete without recording Ab.’s trademark among our new friends....the atomic CLAP!  POW!  When something makes her laugh really hard, she throws her head back and then does one ENORMOUS window shattering CLAP as she laughs.  She makes the rest of us jump out of our skin!  So now, when something is funny, Sv. loves to imitate her by throwing his head back and blasting out one big CLAP- but it still isn’t as loud as Ab.’sJ  I’m not sure what reminded me of that, but nearly every night we have at least one atomic CLAP!:)  I realized I clap when I laugh, too, it just isn’t as loud!  What are we, a family of seals??:)

So back to our evening:

After Ir. & Ka. went home, we all called it a night.

Sunday, November 04, 2012

Our alarm went off at 9:30 am this morning.  It was the last we ever heard out of the white phone we have been borrowing from Sv.  By the time I tried to turn down the ringer at Church, it would no longer respond to the stylus which has to be used for every function.  We even enlisted the help of Sv., who took out the battery, and restarted it.  But it still won’t work.  The white phone has breathed its last. 

Fortunately, we have a back up phone from our dear friends in TX who adopted here in 2010, the Ki. family. 

By 11ish we were off on our way to Church.  We are SO blessed to have Sv. and Ir. hosting us and caring so much for us.  Every Sunday, we get to ride with them to Church rather than the usual bus, metro, walk!  This morning Sv. had to be at Church early, but Ir. drove all the way from her house and picked us up.  Seatbelts in the back seat are unheard of here- so 5 kids piled into the back of her little car was no big dealJ  (My four plus Ir.’s little one Ka.)  Our pile of five kids was very well behaved, too.  At one point I looked back to see if they were all still there!

Today at ICA was Orphan Sunday!  The Pastor presented a wonderful message which addressed the orphan problem in Ukraine and the need for adoptive families and others to support them.  He also reminded us of the fact that WE are all adopted as children of God!   A wonderful lady, Ka. Spr., who works for Orphans Promise in Ukraine, spoke at the service as well.    She also hosts adoptive families in her home, and has had 55 families stay with her in the past 18 months!  We are ETERNALLY grateful to those who have so sacrificially supported us in our adoption, whether financially, by assisting us in our fund raisers, encouragement, prayers or all of the above.  And last but not least, we are IMMENSELY grateful to Sv. and Ir. for sharing this amazing space with us.  Although we are all in one room at night and longing to return to our own beds, this apartment is SUPER deluxe for Kiev and we are SO spoiledJ  God continues to rain down his blessings on us!!!

My newest blessing just made me smile again.  Little Ka. is staying with us while Sv. & Ir. run a wedding related errand.  We just finished watching Madagascar and the kids are sort of floating around looking for things to do.  In his sweet Ukrainian, J2 asked Ka. if she wanted to play.  Then he went to his Carnival lego-type toy set and got her his little Disney figurines we sent to him while he awaited our arrival in Ukraine.  What a sweet and generous boy he is. 

Ir. made a yummy dinner of baked chicken with noodles for us and we concluded our evening by watching Despicable Me together, in honor of Orphan Sunday! Love that movie and love this family (Sv., Ir. & Ka.) who God has made a part of ours.  

Hopefully tomorrow we’ll get AMAZING news that our court decree has been amended and our birth certificate is ready to pick up!!!   OK, not really counting on it...it’s Ukraine...but can’t hurt to hope for it! 

Better get to bed and prepare for our long rainy day walking about town while Na. cleans.:)

Thank you ALL for your love and prayers.  We need all the prayers we can get!

My two Cooks in the making:) 

"I Little Man- in a Poncho"

I told J.V. he was a gift from God, so he put this sign on himself, which says, "present".  

The cozy refuge from the freezing rain as we waited for the Water Museum to let us in!

The water wasting bathroom! 

The enormous toilet!

J1 thought this mannequin had a funny expression.

Love my kiddos

J.V. inside an enormous bubble!

An. in the bubble!

J1 in the bubble!

Ab. in the Bubble!

Sa. in the bubble!

Ab. & Sa. hanging out back at the apartment

Cute Lil. Ka.

Sv. & Ir.....LOVE these two!

Je. is very thirsty..."like a desert." so we made him his own pitcher of Kool Aid:)

Je. sat on J1 and said, "Dude, why is your arm under my leg- that's just weird!" The ICA Youth Pastor...such fun!

My boys...still young at heart...I LOVE it!  We finally made it to the tiny playground we can see from the window.

An. on the slide....AKA "the Stick" since it didn't really slide:)

My big kids :)

J2 and I both love to take pictures...here we stopped for a photo of this pretty tree.

Our journey to get closer to the Church from the window.  Got close, just before sunset!

Adventures with Sv.- the BIG BALLOON!

My boys are loving this balloon!

On our way to St. Sophia square with the BIG BALLOON!

Wow, this was an awesome adventure!

Sv. and the kids running and playing with the BIG BALLOON

Big balloon wasn't quite as high as it appeared:)

Awwww....Big Balloon popped:(  boo hoo.

Sunday Lunch at Yakitori

Our Sushi boat!